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March 26, 2018Are my child’s hearing aids waterproof?
It is time to clear up a hearing aid mystery for parents by answering the following questions: How waterproof are my child’s Phonak Sky hearing aids?
The answer is that child’s Phonak Sky hearing aids are water resistant and have an IP68 rating. According to Phonak, “IP68 indicates that the hearing aid is water resistant and dust tight. It survived continuous immersion in 1 meter of water for 60 minutes and after 8 hours in a dust chamber.” This is informative but isn’t applicable to real life situations.
To make this more applicable to situations parents and children experience daily, Phonak recently did a study to clear up what it means for hearing aids to be water resistant and have an IP68 rating.
Eight children and parents took part in this study for eight weeks. Children wore their hearing aids full time and parents completed a daily activity journal recording all activities their child was involved in that included water.
All of the parents that participated reported that their child’s hearing aids worked after each activity. When asked the question “Do you feel comfortable about your child wearing the hearing aids during these water in the future?” The majority of parents answered yes.
After the study, the hearing aids were sent to the Research and Development department at Phonak headquarters for analysis. After analysis, no signs of malfunction or corrosion were found and the hearing aids were working normally.
The types of water activities hearing aids can withstand
The water activities did not include fully submerging their head in the water. The activities recorded were:
- Playing in a paddling pool
- Bathing in a lake without going underwater
- Playing or walking in the rain
- Showering without washing hair
- Playing in the bath without submerging head
- Participating in water balloon games
- Playing at a fountain or with a sprinkler
- Swimming in the sea without submerging head
- Playing with a water hose or with water sprayers
- Playing on a beach
- Washing face
After each activities parents also checked their children’s hearing aids. They looked at the hearing aid and listened to it to make sure it was working properly. Each parent reported that there were no problems with their children’s hearing aids.
Good news!
This is all good news and gives a new definition of what it means to have water-resistant hearing aids.
The findings in this study suggest that children can take part in ‘light water activities’ (during sports, light rain, splashing in the bathtub) 2-3 times a week and not damage their devices.
This means that children will be able to hear sounds and language that occur during these activities that they were missing before. Also, parents won’t have to worry about their children running into a situation that could potentially cause water damage to their hearing aids.
It is still recommended to not submerge your hearing aids in water, so that means no full showers, baths or swimming underwater in a pool.
Learn more about the features in Phonak Sky hearing aids here.
